"Au bord du Lac Leman" (On the Shore of Lake Geneva) is a piece sketched and composed on the shore of Lake Geneva during a brief holiday in August 1986, while attending a summer short-term seminar on accompaniment (taught by world-renowned accompanist Dalton Baldwin) at the Geneva Conservatory in Switzerland. The deserted lakeside, already imbued with the signs of autumn, presented a mystical world, indescribable and unlike anything I had ever experienced before.

Shortly after returning to Japan, this piece was completed as a symphonic fantasy titled "Zephyrus" (for string ensemble), a work of approximately 15 minutes (performed by orchestras such as the Tokyo Philharmonic and Sendai Philharmonic). In 2000, it was arranged and performed as "Poème" for violin and piano. Thus, "Au bord du Lac Leman," which had been treated merely as a sketch for 17 years, was reborn this year as "Lake Standing in the Mist," the fifth piece in the six-movement piano suite "Water-Colored Landscapes," composed earlier this year. I hope this work will be cherished by many pianists.